Monday, September 15, 2014

Raiders Stinking Up The Joint

The only comfort the Oakland Raiders can take from yesterday's ugly loss-number-two on the season is their cross-bay rival San Francisco 49ers upsetting come-from-in-front loss against Chicago. The Niners were playing their first regular season game at the new stadium in Santa Clara, where seating is priced out of range for many of the old Candlestick crowd. Maybe that's the reason for their opening game collapse at the sparkling new structure; soft, cushy, laid back atmosphere infects home team. That and three Colin Kaepernick interceptions will surely put a dent into any red and gold homecoming. The Bears came from seventeen down to overtake the Niners and hold on for the win. But enough about the spoiled kids from the silicon valley choking, if you were at the blue collar silver and black coliseum yesterday you saw hope for a brighter future disappear before the first quarter ended. Hope was replaced by skepticism and the bleak outlook of watching another Raiders season swirling around the toilet bowl as the flushing commences.

How stinky was it you might ask? When Raiders wide receiver James Jones catches a pass, fumbles, scoops up fumble and runs before being tackled and fumbling again near the goal for a turnover, your nose just crinkles and eyes begin watering.The team played like sh!t in the home opener against the Houston Texans yesterday, and not even lemon fresh air freshener can remove the Monday morning stench lingering from the loss.I've gotta blame the Coaching staff. The team seems willing but the play calling and defensive alignments seem to hurt the Raiders more than help. They just seem so predictable. Then players try doing too much, fumble-itis and bumble-itis set in and a team is left wondering what the heck happened.Sure the offensive and defensive lines look suspect, but a coach has to make adjustments to an opponent's quick release passer and aggressive defense. Coach Dennis Allen kept going to a dry well and by the time he got desert thirsty, dehydration had settled in. Brings back my feelings about 2012 coaching. The Raiders coaching staff is stuck on an island with no rescue in sight and storm clouds rolling in overhead. They're at New England next Sunday. It could be worse; those clouds could be delivering cold, wet, snow if it were winter already. Tucking Patriots!